In Gmail, you can now receive file attachments sizing up to 50MB; but there's a catch

Here's some good news for all those loyal Gmail users who often get frustrated by the 25MB ceiling while sending and receiving attachments in email exchanges, but have still resorted to silent protest. Google has just doubled the size limit for receiving file attachments through Gmail from 25MB to 50MB.

Doesn't it sound like a lifesaver? Of course it does. But here's a catch. You can only receive attachments as big as 50 MB, while the sending size limit still remains limited at 25MB.

Confused? Google didn't clarify how anyone can receive a 50MB file or a set of files if no one can send an attachment as big as that. What we understood is that you can receive larger-than-25MB files sent through other email service providers to your Gmail.

Here's what the company said in its official blog:

Sending and receiving attachments is an important part of email exchanges. While Google Drive offers a convenient way to share files of any size, sometimes you need to receive large files as direct email attachments. So starting today, you will be able to receive emails of up to 50MB directly.

Note: Sending size limits will remain the same at 25MB; however, just as before, you can use Google Drive to send larger attachments.

The update has already started rolling out, but Google has said that it would take about three days for the feature to become available to everyone. As Google mentioned in the blog post, users can still use the Google Drive for sending and receiving files sizing up to 5TB.

Here's a list of some popular email service providers with their maximum email size limit:

Source: Outlook-Apps.com